NewsWrap for the week ending May 26, 2001 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #687, distributed 05-28-01) [Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge, Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon] Anchored by Donald Herman and Cindy Friedman Gay-supportive Vermont Republican Jim Jeffords handed control of the U.S. Senate to the Democrats this week when he left his party to sit as an independent. Jeffords had won reelection in November over the first open gay ever to receive a major party nomination for the U.S. Senate, Democrat Ed Flanagan. Jeffords' move shifts control of the Senate floor agenda from anti-gay Senator Trent Lott to gay-supportive Senator Tom Daschle. It also moves Democrats into Senate committee chairs. Measures favorable to gays and lesbians that Republicans have stalled for years can now be expected to come up for votes, including ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. And appointments and bills damaging to gays and lesbians can be expected to be blocked. The Republican-controlled House passed two such measures this week, both amendments to an education funding bill. One would force high schools to allow military recruiters on campus if they are to receive federal funding. Some 2,000 high schools currently ban military recruiters, some specifically because of the U.S. military's ban on service by open gays and lesbians. A similar requirement has already forced a number of colleges and universities to end their protests against military discrimination. Another would deny federal funds to public high schools that deny equal access to meeting space to the Boy Scouts of America and other youth groups that, in the language of the amendment, "prohibit the acceptance of homosexuality." The amendment was originally proposed in the Senate by arch-homophobe Jesse Helms of North Carolina. A number of school districts across the country have been reviewing their policies on extra-curricular clubs since the Scouts won the right to exclude gays in a U.S. Supreme Court case last year. Some have dropped special access the Scouts had formerly enjoyed. But the Republican Party in Hawai'i last week became the first in the U.S. to feature a member of the gay and lesbian Log Cabin Republicans as a speaker at its state convention. Hawai'i Log Cabin founder Jeffrey Mead won a standing ovation. State party leader Linda Lingle said his speech was "about compassion for people, freedom, things we care a lot about." But Republican state Representative William Stonebraker is considering dropping a bid for reelection in the wake of Mead's appearance, saying, "I represent more than my district. I represent people before God and God before people." Stonebraker is an assistant pastor at Honolulu's Calvary Chapel. Mead himself is a deacon at Central Union Church. A Texas bill to deny legal recognition to gay and lesbian marriages failed in a third consecutive legislative session, dying in a House committee. In Louisiana, a bill to prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation was defeated on the Senate floor, while a bill to repeal the state sodomy law failed on the House floor. But Minnesota's 19th-century sodomy law was struck down by a state judge last week as violating privacy guarantees in the state constitution. The law provides for up to a year in jail and a $3,000 fine for oral or anal sex acts, even those between married heterosexuals. The law was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union with a half-dozen plaintiffs intended to represent a cross-section of those affected by it, including the gay and lesbian Minnesota Lavender Bar Association. Shareholders of telecommunications giant AT&T this week overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to remove all references to "sexual orientation" in the corporation's equal opportunity policy. An Ohio couple had instigated the proposal, telling the "Wall Street Journal" that the current policy seems to promote violation of sodomy laws. They considered winning about 6% of the votes to be a victory. AT&T's board of directors had stated the proposal "would negatively impact our workplace environment and that the resolution would not be in the best interests of the company." In Canada, a Prince Edward Island bed-and-breakfast is closing down rather than host gay and lesbian couples. Montreal gay Jean Bedard filed a complaint with the provincial Human Rights Commission after the Beach View B & B refused to honor his reservation on learning he intended to share his room with his partner Simon Corneau. The complaint was settled this week as Beach View's owners agreed to pay C$1,000 in damages and shut down their operation. The Commission's head said the owners "honestly did not believe" their policy of excluding gays and lesbians violated PEI's human rights law. In Australia, a Brisbane lesbian's seven-year battle for fertility treatment failed in Queenland's Anti-Discrimination Tribunal this week. The state health service's guidelines restrict such treatment to women in relationships with men, whether married or cohabiting. Although the tribunal said its ruling left the door open for future challenges to the policy, plaintiff Jennifer Morgan said she felt there was nowhere else to go with her complaint. Morgan was denied access to a Brisbane sperm bank in 1994. She now lives in the state of Victoria, whose ban on fertility services for women not in relationships with men is currently the subject of a national legislative debate and a pending Supreme Court appeal. Israeli activists repeatedly interrupted a parliamentary discussion on creation of civil marriages, demanding inclusion of gay and lesbian couples in the proposed law reform. The Coalition for Free Choice in Marriage, which had initiated the discussion, previously deemed it "impractical" to seek marriage rights for gays and lesbians as part of its legislative package. But gay and lesbian activists finally won their right to be heard in the forum at the Knesset, and later the Movement for Conservative Judaism made a statement of support for equal marriage rights. In the Czech Republic, the national conference of bishops called on Roman Catholics to sign a petition against the Government's bill to create legal partnerships for gays and lesbians. The petition is being circulated by the National Center for the Family. The bishops' statement said that everyone should respect the human dignity of homosexuals, but said the partnership bill would not solve their problems and would confuse troubled young people. An international journalists organization blames the Russian Orthodox Church and Islam for a wave of conservatism threatening gays and lesbians in Kazakhstan. With the fall of the USSR, there was a new tolerance that enabled the growth of gay and lesbian communities and institutions in Kazakhstan. But now the tide has changed, according to a new report by the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting. An incident in May in the city of Almaty was noted as typical: four gay men were attacked outside a gay club, and when police arrived, they joined the attackers. The Institute noted unchecked abuse and rape of gays in prison and a high rate of suicide. In largely Buddhist Sri Lanka, the gay and lesbian group Companions on a Journey sees real progress. In a media conference announcing their official invitation to join the national Health Ministry's commission on AIDS, Companions head Sherman de Rose said, "We've come a long way. We are proud to say that we've come through a horrible, inhuman, indecent, vicious period." Although he still fears a backlash, he recalled how the group's first media conference in 1995 led to attacks on its office and three of its members. The group continues to work for decriminalization of homosexual acts. Transsexuals are pursuing recognition in courts in Britain and Japan. Transwoman Elizabeth Bellinger appeared in Britain's Court of Appeal this week for legal recognition of her 20-year marriage. That marriage was performed by a registrar who had not questioned that she was female. A sympathetic trial court judge had reluctantly declared the marriage void. Bellinger's attorney renewed her arguments that the 30-year-old legal guidelines on sex are now outdated, and that denying that Bellinger is female violates the Human Rights Act. Britain has staunchly refused to change the birth certificates of transsexuals. A half-dozen Japanese transsexuals are suing to change the gender shown on their family registers, the equivalent of birth certificates. They have filed in several different courts, most of them maintaining confidentiality. They claim they are experiencing discrimination in every situation in which they're required to show identification, including employment, housing and banking. They have won the official support of the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology, which will petition the Justice Ministry and the Supreme Court to change transsexuals' family registers. Sex reassignment surgery has only been performed legally in Japan since 1998, but a number of Japanese have gone to other countries to undergo the operation. And finally... the yearbook for Colorado's Boulder High School includes a photo-feature called "First Kiss". Students were ready to include a photo of two openly bisexual women students kissing each other. But a nervous faculty sponsor thought they should get written permission from that couple's parents first, and when that paperwork wasn't completed by deadline, the picture was left out. The sponsor now regrets having created a double standard, and wishes she'd put the same requirement on the photos of heterosexual couples. The editor-in-chief of next year's edition of the yearbook has already announced his plans to include at least one photo of gay and lesbian couples kissing. He ought to have plenty to choose from: 150 students this week responded to the censorship with an hour-long kiss-in on the Boulder High campus.